c. 1998 Religion News Service

BOSTON _ A dispute between a former Roman Catholic priest and his archdiocese in Boston has mushroomed into a national movement for aging priests who left the priesthood in the turmoil of the 1960s and who now say the church has denied them pension benefits they had been told to expect.

While the issue may first appear to be a matter of legal interpretations, organizers of a new campaign on the ex-priests’ behalf said they aim to introduce moral arguments into the debate _ one that could call into question the very nature of the contemporary priesthood that only recently has had to confront secular retirement issues.

The dispute began three years ago when Paul Francis McGreevy, a San Diego-based attorney who was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston in 1956, began an advocacy campaign for priests who left the active ministry to get married and are now reaching retirement age.

McGreevy contends the priests have been denied money they had contributed to what he called a retirement fund. Boston church officials reject McGreevy’s claim, saying the fund was a health care fund for aging priests in good standing.

McGreevy said he has been in correspondence with more than 350 parishes in nearly 50 dioceses _ including Boston _ across the country.

Last year, McGreevy’s work in Boston caught the attention of the Corps of Reserved Priests United for Service (CORPUS), a national, 3,500-member organization of former priests who have married.

CORPUS and McGreevy have launched a national media and advocacy campaign they hope will earn the issue a place on the agenda of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB), the umbrella organization of the church’s hierarchy.

Because retirement and pension policies are left to the discretion of individual dioceses, CORPUS hopes to convince local church officials they have a moral obligation to their former priests _ even those who leave active ministry for marriage.

Three jurisdictions _ Chicago, San Diego and Seattle _ are among those who currently provide pension plans covering all priests, including those who left to marry.

McGreevy’s allegation in Boston was that priests who were ordained during the 1960s were compelled to pay $200 a year into a fund, called”The Clergy Fund.”When they left the active ministry, as McGreevy, now 67, did 15 years after his ordination, the church refused to return their money or grant them a pension.

But Boston church officials say”The Clergy Fund”was not a pension or retirement fund at all, but a health care fund for priests who, because of age or disability, could no longer fulfill their priestly assignments.”There was no pension system,”said John Walsh, spokesman for the archdiocese.”There was a very modest payment, which simply helped to defray the archdiocesan costs. It was not a question of entitlement.” The fund, which is referred to in 1969 correspondence from the archdiocese’s chancery as”the Clergy Fund Society for retirement and sick benefits and for hospitalization and medical expenses,”only provided for priests who remained active as long as their health allowed, Walsh said.”The archdiocese has acted justly, not only legally, but justly,”he said, adding the archdiocese currently has a more structured pension plan for priests who reach”senior status in good standing.” Last March, Boston’s Cardinal Bernard Law declared that pension funds may be dispensed on a charitable, case-by-case basis to former priests who can demonstrate need.

McGreevy and CORPUS say their campaign is aimed at preventing dioceses nationwide from financially abandoning their married priests.

Anthony T. Padovano, president of CORPUS, cited Roman Catholic doctrine that”once you’re ordained, it’s forever.”He said a recent Gallup poll showed 70 percent of American Catholics supported a married priesthood _ despite Pope John Paul II’s firm opposition to the idea.

Padovano also said married former priests like himself feel their ministry did not end when they resigned their affiliation with a diocese.”I have not stopped being a priest all these years,”said William Manseau, a psychotherapist and hospice chaplain in Nashua, N.H., who is also chairman of CORPUS’ Committee on Pensions for Married Priests.

But Walsh said while such a view is theologically correct,”we’re talking about individuals who essentially walked away from that (priestly) ministry”and returned to the lay world.

CORPUS recently launched the group’s national”class-action”campaign, which will include a survey of ex-priests and efforts to encourage current priests to question their diocesan pension policies. Such efforts, Manseau said, will lay the groundwork for approaching the NCCB.

The NCCB does not have a policy on priestly pensions, according to a spokesman.

McGreevy, who is not a member of CORPUS but who serves on Manseau’s committee, said a media and advocacy campaign makes more sense than a legal battle in the courts.”The court will fall back on the First Amendment and say we can’t get involved with the governance … of the church,”McGreevy said.

He noted, however, that dioceses in Portland, Maine, and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., have reached agreement with their married priests simply by the threat of civil litigation.

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Another legal factor is that clergy pension plans are exempt from the 1974 Employee Retirement Income Security Act, a law which regulates the administration of private sector pension plans.

This exemption allows local dioceses to make their own decisions about who will get pensions, according to tax-law specialists at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).”This is a contractual obligation, but the fact remains it would be a matter of civil litigation,”said the IRS spokesperson, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Contract law, the spokesperson added, varies state-by-state.

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But CORPUS and McGreevy hope to appeal to the church’s sense of moral justice, rather than legal precedent.”Our intent here is to obtain recognition by the bishops that this is a matter of justice, and therefore that it is something that they need to address, and that they owe compensation to their priests,”Manseau said.

Their efforts have earned the support of at least one national Catholic organization.

The National Federation of Priest Councils (NFPC), a Chicago-based group that serves the needs of individual priests and their councils, said the issue of priests’ pensions is high on its agenda, although the organization does not work specifically on the issue of compensation for married former priests.”The issue of just compensation is not separated by whether you’re still in the ministry or not,”said the Rev. Donald Wolf, president of NFPC.

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